1. Field:
The present disclosure relates generally to wiring systems in vehicles and in particular to a method and apparatus for testing a wiring system. Still more particularly, the present disclosure relates to a computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer usable program code for testing a wiring system.
2. Background:
Complex systems, such as modern aircraft, may have tens of miles of wiring. Wires are used to distribute power and/or data to various types of devices in an aircraft. The connections between devices, providing flow for power and/or data, are referred to as paths. A path may include any component that connects to a device. These systems of connections and devices may be referred to as wiring systems.
Wiring systems may operate with degraded performance due to inconsistencies in one or more connections and/or devices. Such inconsistencies may cause a loss of power or communication in various portions of the wiring system. For example, intermittent connection problems may result from inconsistencies in the wiring system. Inconsistencies are commonly reworked in order to resume normal operation of the wiring system. For example, a connector between multiple wires may stop operating normally when one or more wires in the connector become loose.
The connector and/or wire may need to be reworked or replaced to resume normal operation of the connector. In some cases, the connector and/or wire requires large amounts of time and energy for the technician to expose the connector and/or wire to the hands and/or tools of the technician. For example, a technician removes one or more panel covers to reach a connector. The technician may then reconnect the wire to the connector so the wires in each portion of the connector meet as designed. Finally, the technician replaces the panel covers to cover the connector.
A technician locates an inconsistency in a wiring system before reworking the inconsistency. One reason the technician locates the inconsistency is to determine what portion or portions of the wiring system must be reworked or replaced to restore normal operation of the wiring system. Due to the complexity of wiring systems in use today, locating inconsistencies can be cumbersome and/or time consuming.
A technician locates one or more inconsistencies by performing tests to locate one or more areas of the wiring system that are not performing normally. In some cases, tests are inconclusive or only accurate to a certain degree of specificity. For example, testing the wiring system may indicate to a technician that an inconsistency in a wiring system is located between two points in a wire that has numerous connectors.
The technician then makes an assumption for the location of the inconsistency from the known information and expends time and energy reaching and reworking and/or replacing the portions of the wiring system. In some cases, the assumption was incorrect and the wiring system remains in a degraded state of operation. In other cases, the technician spends more resources on replacing and/or reworking the portion of the wiring system than necessary. The technician may have spent more time, money, and energy to return the wiring system to normal operation than the technician would have spent if the location of the one or more inconsistencies in the wiring system were located more precisely.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to have a method and apparatus, which takes into account one or more of the issues discussed above as well as possibly other issues.